The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 21 April 2021
The independent report can be accessed here.
The government is now proposing a wide range of changes to rebalance the MHA, to put patients at the centre of decisions about their own care and ensure everyone is treated equally.
The changes are based on 4 principles that have been developed with people with lived experience of the MHA. They are:
- Choice and autonomy – ensuring service users’ views and choices are respected
- Least restriction – ensuring the MHA’s powers are used in the least restrictive way
- Therapeutic benefit – ensuring patients are supported to get better, so they can be discharged from the MHA
- The person as an individual – ensuring patients are viewed and treated as individuals
Further details of the reforms planned including an impact assessment can be accessed here.
The online survey can be accessed here.
In addition the government has produced an easy read version of their plans which can be downloaded here. The easy read survey can be accessed here.
Mind, a charitable company, provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. In addition to their national work, they have a network of around 125 Local Minds, that provide mental health services in local communities across England and Wales. They welcome the review’s recommendations to increase people’s choice and dignity when they are subject to the Mental Health Act, and for promoting race equality in mental health services and the use of the Act.
In particular, they welcome the recommendation that anybody detained, whether they are sectioned against their will or are a voluntary patient, will have access to an advocate to assist them. They back the promotion of race equality in mental health services and in the use of the Act, but they want concrete commitments, including that the NHS builds relationships with local communities.
They were disappointed to see that the Review has not recommended getting rid of Community Treatment Orders (CTOs). In the longer term, they want to see larger, more fundamental shifts in the law.
Details of their engagement work in context to this review and how to feed into their response to the White Paper can be accessed here.
Local VCSE organisations that support people with mental health needs may wish to read about the plans and contribute to the consultation.